Posted by chicagomedia.org on May 21, 2009 at 10:08:09:
WMAQ-TV's Warner Saunders signs off: 'I'm just in awe'
Warner Saunders bid farewell to WMAQ-Ch. 5 colleagues and viewers on Wednesday’s 10 p.m. newscast after 29 years at the station, the last dozen as its lead anchor, concluding a Chicago television career of more than 40 years.
"I'm just in awe that you have allowed me to come into your home for all of these years," Saunders said to viewers, as long-time co-anchor Allison Rosati teared up. "We bring some pretty nasty news from time to time, and I'm just glad that you all didn't kill the messenger."
Saunders, 74, who announced in October that he planned to retire at the end of this month, had been off the air since March because of complications from hip-replacement surgery. He returned only to formally sign off. The station has a half-hour retrospective, “Never Give Up: A Tribute to Warner Saunders,” set to air at 7:30 a.m. Sunday and 4:30 p.m. on Monday, which is Memorial Day.
"When I think of the city, I picture all the great Chicago monuments -- Soldier Field, the Sears Tower, the Art Institute and, of course, Warner Saunders," President Barack Obama said in a clip the station showed as it devoted more than 10 minutes at the end of the newscast to Saunders' retirement.
Until the beginning of this year, when he walked away from Channel 5's weeknight 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts, Saunders had co-anchored with Rosati on both those and the NBC-owned station's 10 p.m. show. Bob Sirott stepped in for Saunders on the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts and has been the primary substitute for him on the 10 p.m. during his recent prolonged absence.
"You were always able to bring out the best in everybody," Sirott said. "That says a lot about you, and if there were a Mount Rushmore of Chicago faces, you'd be up there."
WMAQ has not named an official successor to Saunders. Saunders called Sirott up to the stage Saturday night with Rosati, weathercaster Brant Miller and sportscaster Daryl Hawks at a Museum of Broadcast Communications salute, introducing them as WMAQ's new 10 p.m. news team. But a station spokeswoman on Wednesday said no decision has been made yet regarding who will anchor the 10 p.m. broadcast in the post-Saunders era.
One change that the station did confirm is that Saunders will be replaced on June 1st by announcer Ed Hopkins as the recorded voice heard by callers to WMAQ.
A one-time teacher, bus driver and youth worker, Saunders became a frequent interviewee on the subject of urban youth in the 1960s. This led to monthly specials on Channel 5, and then a Sunday afternoon show on Channel 7, "For Blacks Only," which he co-hosted with radio star "Daddy-O" Daylie beginning in 1968.
When WSNS-Ch. 44 was starting a news operation in 1970, Saunders served as its urban affairs editor. From there, he went to WBBM-Ch. 2, where his on-air profile as a host and reporter increased as a prelude to joining Channel 5.
Having moved from news to sports and back to news, Saunders became the lead newscaster after Ron Magers, now at top-rated ABC-owned WLS-Ch. 7, left after Channel 5 briefly experimented with Jerry Springer as commentator.
"Everybody knows you," Rosati said to Saunders. "Everybody loves you. ... We're going to miss you like crazy around here."
Asked by Sirott to name his most personally rewarding experience -- on the air or off -- Saunders said it was his interview with former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a long-time segregationist who reversed his position before he died in 1998.
"I was totally expecting this snarling, angry man," Saunders said. "We sat and talked for about an hour and we had dinner later on. It showed me that people can become something different in their life. This man was truly sorry for what he did to this nation. We shook hands and embraced each other at the end of the dinner, and I said to myself, 'Here I am sitting with Gov. George Wallace, a person that I thought was the devil incarnate, but he turned out to be a very good man.' We corresponded with each other for several years after that, until he passed away."
NBC and Telemundo Chicago have a free event in celebration of Saunders' career set for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Museum of Science and Industry.
"[Saunders] was a Chicago institution long before I arrived," Obama said in a clip first shown at the Museum of Broadcast Communications salute. "Today there is an entire generation of Chicagoans, myself included, who can't picture life without Warner on the air. For as long as we can remember, he's been there, breaking barriers to explore every inch of the city he loved, to bring us the world beyond."
Saunders stunned many in the Chicago broadcast community at the local American Federation of Television and Radio Artists chapter's annual meeting in February by verbally confronting former Chicago Sun-Times TV/radio columnist Robert Feder, an honored guest at the union event.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)